There won't be a dry eye in the house if we can win for Walter

Seal glory send-off

SHOULD Walter Smith end up performing his party piece at one last Rangers celebration tonight there won't be a dry eye in the house.

Back in November Stuart McCall told SunSport he wanted to see his gaffer bowing out of Ibrox standing on a table at the cup final party puffing a cigar and singing 'Simply the Best'.

Now if Rangers can get the better of Hearts in front of 50,000 wild supporters in today's Parkhead showdown McCall will see his dream come to life.

The midfield star insisted: "We've had some great cup final nights at the end of the season.

They've been absolutely magic.

"The gaffer's party pieces have always been highlights and if it is repeated then there won't be a dry eye in the house.

"It would be terrible for him if he didn't pick up one piece of silverware in his last season.

"He has done so much for the club and deserves to go out with this one final trophy.

"But the incentive has always been there for us to stretch the season right to the end and make it a day to remember for the lads who are leaving.

"We've had to battle to get to the final so we're not going to chuck away all the good work."

Smith has not talked much about his departure to the players since he announced his decision to quit earlier in the season.

But McCall admitted the Ibrox gaffer's team talks have left them in no doubt what he was looking for from them.

He said: "We had a long, long talk-in after we lost at Motherwell and he told us then not to use his departure as an excuse.

"He's handled things tremendously well and has been great with us in training.

In fact he seems to be more relaxed as the time for him to give up as manager approaches."

But while McCall wants his gaffer to go out on a high he is also desperate to land the trophy for himself - because he may be pulling on a Light Blue jersey for the last time today.

Incoming manager Dick Advocaat recently assured the fans' favourite he wanted him to be part of the new Ibrox regime.

But McCall - axed from Scotland's World Cup squad this week - admits he may bring his seven-year Rangers career to an end because he can't bear the thought of sitting in the Ibrox dressing room without his pals.

At Parkhead today he will see so many faces who won't be part of the Rangers set-up next season.

Smith, his assistant Archie Knox, even the team doctor Donald Cruickshank are leaving.

And team-mates Andy Goram, Richard Gough, Ally McCoist, Ian Durrant and Brian Laudrup are all departing along with suspended Alex Cleland who will watch from the stand.

McCall added: "There are a lot of decisions to be made and realistically I have to accept this might be my last game.

"There are so many young lads such as Rino Gattuso, Barry Ferguson and Charlie Miller all competing in midfield.

"And I'm sure the new boss will also want to bring in his own players.

There are really big changes on the way.

"I think I've got another two years left to play and I'd like that to be first-team football.

That may well not be possible at Rangers and I don't want to be a fringe player.

"If I stay on I can't help feeling I'll be looking round the dressing-room next season and seeing the ghosts of the lads who have left - maybe it's time to move on."

But if this is to be his swansong McCall is determined to give the Rangers fans one last battling performance to remember him by.

He has been overwhelmed by their support over the last couple of weeks despite missing out on 10-in-a-row to Old Firm rivals Celtic.

And he admitted: "It was gut-wrenching when we lost against Kilmarnock two weeks ago.

"Then the police came in and said there were still around 20,000 supporters in the ground.

"The gaffer asked us what we wanted to do and someone said if the fans wanted to see us the least we could do was go and salute them.

"It was the same at Dundee United last week when, although we won, Celtic still took the title.

"The support we got from the fans was incredible.

"Supporters can't change a game, only players and managers can do that, but they still backed us all the way - it was tremendous."

McCall admits Rangers have failed to turn it on in the Premier Division race this season as Celtic snatched their championship crown.

But he reckons they can forget about the inconsistency which has thwarted their title bid and turn on the style one last time to ensure the Scottish Cup is sitting in the Ibrox trophy room tonight.

He added: "We only peformed in about eight games.

Three of them were against Celtic and another three were against Hearts.

"We had two tremendous away victories against Hearts - I was skipper in one of them - and also a wonderful first game at Ibrox when we had a 3-1 triumph.

"If we're going to win the cup we've got to produce an action replay of those performances.

"I know Hearts will believe it's got to turn their way eventually and we've been hit by the absence of players such as Jorg Albertz, Jonas Thern and Alex Cleland.

"But we've got such a massive incentive to win and we're determined not to fail.

"I've been lucky enough to play in four cup finals in my time at Rangers and I've been on the winning side in three of them.

"The time we lost was against Dundee United.

I didn't like the feeling and it's one I certainly don't want to repeat."